The last few years, and these last few months in particular, are teaching me that suffering isn't always about our personal sin. Job's friends kept trying to do that. "I see your suffering and can only conclude you have some unconfessed sin. Have you examined your heart?" /1

And Job's response is to despair. No wonder. If we could bring an end to our suffering by confessing, by sacrificing, by doing or saying something, wouldn't we have already? But rarely can we DO anything to make our suffering end. /2

I want to be slower to ask, "Ah, well, what are you worshipping right now?" or "What are you running to for relief?" when someone shares their suffering with me. I want to be quicker to listen, slower to speak. /3

Quick to just sit there and lament WITH, not preach TO.

In the storyline of Scripture, we generally see one of two dilemmas: God's people did not obey and faced consequences; and God's people *could not* obey, because they didn't have changed hearts.

BUT /4

BUT. Suffering doesn't seem to fit into those narratives. While we do sometimes have to face consequences to our personal sin, suffering is not always a result of that. And we can have changed hearts and still experience the consequences of someone else's sin on us. /5

Sin and suffering are not always the same thing. I want to grow sharper in discerning the difference. I want the Church to grow sharper in discerning the difference. I want all of us to stop hurting each other by assuming they're the same. 6/6